


Crystalline

by serenadinsirens



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Relationships, platonic mayvin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-06
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-31 17:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1034337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenadinsirens/pseuds/serenadinsirens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael Jones just had an unfortunate knack for getting into things he really shouldn't get into. Which is why he shouldn't be surprised that he's sat next to a sobbing elf with an abnormally large nose, in an entirely different realm, waiting to be executed.</p><p>Guess it was just one of those days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the start.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never posted to AO3 before so here goes. I've had this idea in my head for a while now as an original story, but writing Michael and Gavin's friendship was just so much fun that I translated it into a fanfic. I don't know if there's going to be any actual relationships yet, but I just know that you can look forward to AH OT6 bromance. 
> 
> There's a lot more to come to this story, this is just the exposition.

Michael Jones was a boy used to getting himself in difficult situations.

Maybe it had started when he was a kid, or maybe it had started earlier. All he knows is that for as long as he'd been alive, he had consistently managed to find himself in a lot of trouble.

When he was seven, he'd sleepwalked out into the middle of the street and continued until he'd woken up in a playground three blocks away. When he was thirteen, he'd accidentally made an "obscure insinuation" about his social studies teacher that had resulted in multiple lawsuits and the man losing his job. The next year, he'd managed to stumble his way into a drug dealer ship (which, in retrospect, maybe should have been planned out more that a teenager shouldn't be able to fall face first into the pair, but there's nothing they could do now to change the past). 

Michael just had an unfortunate knack for getting into things he really shouldn't get into. It's not that it's his intention, either. Michael was a cautious boy of seventeen, easily agitated. preferred to be left alone. He never asked for adventure or trouble, it just kind of tripped over its shoelaces and into his life. Over and over again.

Which is why he shouldn't be surprised that he's sat next to a sobbing elf with and abnormally large nose, in an entirely different realm, waiting to be executed.

It wasn't on purpose, as always, and he really wasn't even sure how he'd even got there. The night before had been normal; he'd brushed his teeth and pulled off his pants and fallen asleep in a graphic tee and boxers, but today, he woke up in some sort of prison cell.

The walls were dark and glistening with a moisture that slid off the surface at agonizingly slow spherical drips. The off green color of the rocks suggested moss and old structure, nearly threatening to collapse. His hands were bound by rope and dirt smeared across the bright letters on his shirt.

It didn't seem entirely real. In fact, he was still pretty positive that he was dreaming. He had to be dreaming, right? There was no logical explanation as to how he'd even got there. It seemed to far-fetched, too incredible, listening to languages he'd never heard before, being charged with crimes he'd never committed.

And really, that elf was too motherfucking annoying to be real.

"There has to be some kind of a mistake!" he was crying, fat tears rolling off his larger-than-life nose, his voice reaching shrill pitches that were slightly obscured by his british accent. "You don't understand! I'm as innocent as can be! Honest! Please!"

A face appeared between the bars, wearing an irritated expression that reflected precisely how Michael felt about the situation.

"Bullshit," the lips moved, a gruff voice parting from between them. "We found it on you. The crystal is a sacred artifact, blessed to the Pattillo family. Theft of  _any_ sacred artifact is punishable by death. Maybe you should have learned to keep your paws off and you wouldn't be here."

The inhuman noise that somehow managed to escape the elf's lips reminded Michael that, while he wasn't suicidal, if waking up from this bizarre dream wasn't an option, he'd be a-okay with dying.

As the guard walked away, the elf pressed himself impossibly closer to the bars, the cylindrical steel almost comedically squishing the skin of a face Michael was too quickly getting sick of. He called out pleas and promises of innocence, bribes put at a pitch so grating to Michael's eardrums. 

"Please, for the love of fucking Christ, will you shut the fuck up," his voice was so sudden, Michael'd even surprised himself.

The elf looked over, wide hazel eyes still spitting out tears as he sniffed snot back into those gaping nostrils that Michael couldn't wait to make fun of. 

"Oh yeah?" he shot back, the green in his eyes flaring. "What are you here for, then? What gives  _you_ the right?!" 

Michael groaned as he shifted in his spot against the wall.

"I don't fucking know," he spat, "obstruction of royal ground or some bullshit. Who knows. I don't. I don't even know where I am or how I got here, man, I just suddenly woke up to the sound of your obnoxious voice and just assumed I was in Hell."

The expression on the elf's face was priceless; the way his mouth hung agape and eyes displayed such irrefutable shock, it caused Michael such glee. Great, unremarkable glee. But alas, it was ruined when the elf's face broke into a grin, some sort of chuckle bubbling in his chest.

"How can you not know where you are, you absolute  _donut_? You're in Prison for Christ's sake! You had to do  _something_ ," he teased, the tone in his voice mellowing from the irritating pitch it had been at before.

Michael sighed, "God, I don't know. They told me they'd found me lying in a crater, surrounded by burning trees and decaying land. Woke up here. And apparently, I'm going to be executed in a couple of hours. What a day. God, I can't wait to wake up."

The elf chuckled again. "Well, I'm not so sure that you're dreaming, since I know I'm real at least."

Michael studied him for a second.

"I don't believe you."

The other shook his head, a sad sort of grin growing across his features. 

"You are one interesting character..." he trailed off, frowning. "What was your name again?" he inquired.

"Michael," Michael stated, slowly, unsure.

"Michael," the elf repeated, the name falling oddly off his tongue because of his accent, sounding almost comical. "You are one interesting character, Michael."

Michael frowned at his words. "You say my name weird."

"What do you mean?" the other prisoner asked.

"It's 'Michael'," he said pointedly. "You say 'Micool'."

"Michael," the hazel eyed companion tried again, but it still managed to sound off and that begged the human to frown.

"No, 'Michael'. You're still saying it weird!"

The elf shrugged, "It sounds stupid the way you say it.  _My_  way's better."

Michael bristled at his words, annoyance settling in his gut. Literally, what the hell?

"What the fuck are you talking about?! That's my fucking  _name_ , that's how you  _pronounce_  it!" he seethed, incredulity at the other's attitude kissing the annoyance in his voice.

"Well, then, it's a dumb name," the other said simply, shrugging his shoulders as if Michael's words made no difference or what he was saying was completely logical and made perfect sense.

"What the fuck-" Michael started, but closed his mouth, no words describing his irritation at the other's ignorance coming to surface. "You're- you're a fucking  _idiot_." 

"My name's Gavin Free," the elf said, trying to extend his hand to shake, only to remember it was bound and laughed at his stupidity. "Born of Ellod. Barred to Ramsey of Ar." He gave a grin that immediately gave Michael a threateningly strong urge to smack him across the face.

Michael frowned. "Okay, Gavin Free: Born of Ellod, barred to Ramsey of Ar, you're a  _fucking idiot,_ " he restated, wanting to pinch the bridge of his nose as he spoke. "And I don't even know what half of those words mean! Save for the 'fucking idiot' part, which I'm pretty sure if you looked that up in a dictionary, it would only have a picture of your stupid face."

Gavin's complete disregard for Michael's insults and opinions was once again apparent as he frowned, confusion clouding his features.

"Where are you from again?" he asked, tilting his head with the question.

"New Jersey."

That didn't clear any of Gavin's confusion as he asked, "is that the town? I've never heard of it. Where-"

The sound of an explosion, followed by a rumbling cut him off, the ground beneath Michael's fingertips trembling, dust from the ceiling coating their heads and shoulders. The residuous tremors shook alive seemingly everyone else in the prison, riotous cries and the pounding of soldiers' boots echoing throughout the halls.

"What the fuck was that?!" Michael exclaimed, struggling to get to his feet without the assistance of his hands. He pushes himself off the wall, legs weak and steps shaking as he pushes past Gavin to peer out the bars of the cell.

Dust clearing from the air, he managed to get a good look at the scene. People of all colors, shapes, genders, and ages were throwing themselves at the bars, hands and fingers slipping through, trying to get a grasp at the figure walking between them. Michael couldn't see his face, but what mattered, more, was the way his feet pressed into the ground like they weighed a ton and were being dropped from large heights, the stone ground shattering beneath every step he took. The floor crumbled and shook, springing cells alive and breaking barriers as the being walked past.

"What's going on," Gavin breathed, suddenly very close to Michael, breaking his trance from the scene before him. 

"I-I don't know," Michael mumbled back. "Something's here and it's... Fuck. I don't  _know_." 

_"Oh, shit, sweet. I'm free."_

The calm and collected voice contrasted against the pleas and screams of the prisoners so much that it immediately caught Michael's attention. He looked up, finding a young man, around his age, of average height brushing himself off. He was wearing a stark white button up shirt, paired with a red bow-tie and black slacks.

A stubbled grin spread across his face as he bent down over a body of a guard who'd come in direct contact with the creature from before.

"Oooh, lookie here," the boy sang to himself, pulling up a ring nearly completely filled with keys. The second the object was in his hands, the cells surrounding him exploded with noise; begs and screams for liberty falling from desperate lips. The boy chuckled turning to face the cell next to Michael's.

"Please!" came a woman's voice, wracked with sobs. "Please! I have children! They need me!" and she continued on in a language Michael couldn't even attempt to decipher.

The other's reaction was unexplainable, so much so that Michael was sure the lights were playing tricks on him, because the boy's eyes glowed  _red_ , he swore, gleaming beneath his glasses, before returning to their normal shade of dark brown.

The boy leaned in closely to to the bars, peering at the woman, a grin spreading across his face, before singing lightly again.

_"Liar."_

And he turned on his heels, ignoring the screams of apology coming from the cell. Michael felt bile rise to his throat, his heart racing against his chest as the boy walked past him, realizing that this guy was his only chance to get out of this mess.

"Wait," Michael said, his voice trembling more than he would have liked. And it stopped the boy, turning, against everyone else in this god forsaken prison, to face Michael and Gavin with a grin.

"The things people will say for freedom, am I right?" the boy said, gesturing with his thumb towards the woman in the cell next to him. Up close, he didn't look nearly as intimidating. In fact, he seemed kind of  _normal_. 

Michael swallowed. 

"You gotta let me out, man. I don't know what the hell's going on but, like, I can't stay here. I'm not  _supposed_  to be here."

"Me, too!" Gavin piped up from next to him, squealing when Michael elbowed him in the ribs.

The boy studied them for a second, before leaning in kind of uncomfortably close to the pair. And he did it again, close enough for Michael to be sure that it wasn't the light. The red melted into his irises from the whites of his eyes, a dark, glowing ruby swimming with different shades, almost mystifying, before it melted away once again. 

The boy frowned slightly, not like he was upset as much as he was intrigued, like a kid's first trip to the zoo, seeing the flamingos for the first time in his life.

He broke out into a grin.

"Well alright!" he said, picking out a key and kissing it for good luck. "This better be the right one," he mumbled under his breath, cheering when the gate opened.

Michael and Gavin stumbled out, some sort of light feeling swimming in his gut, something one might call the grace of freedom.

"Thanks, man. I'm Michael," he said, mimicking Gavin as he tried to extend his hand to shake, only to be met with irritation when he remembered that his hands were bound. 

"I know," the boy said with a smile. "Michael Jones. 17 years old. Human. New Jersey, USA, Earth. I'm Ray, by the way. Pleased to meet you."

Utter confusion raced Michael's mind as Gavin gave a breathe of "ooooh,  _human_ ", not knowing whether to be curious or scared at the information Ray had fed him.

"How-" he started but cut off when a hand was raised to get him to stop.

"We'll talk later," Ray said, "for now, let's get out of here before anyone catches us."

And Michael looked over to Gavin, who gave a shrug, then a nod, as they both concluded that, questions aside, the taste of freedom on the tip of their tongues was sweeter than any sort of curiosity, and they followed Ray down the hall and finally, into Michael's first real glimpse of the outside.

 


	2. onwards

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obligatory background story and fantasy lore chapter. I guess it was needed, ha. Team lads is so much fun to write, I'm not going to lie.
> 
> Anyways, if you have any sort of criticism or feedback on all of this back story I'm providing, now is especially when I would like it.

The outside wasn’t nearly as exciting as Michael would think.

It seemed like Earth, in a way. The grass was the same shade of dark green, swaying softly with each breath of wind, and the sky overhead was turned white from the over shading clouds. There weren’t many plants around them, he noted as his eyes scanned the land in search of life, only noticing a dead looking tree about 10 yards away. It felt empty, isolating, and it left a dry feeling in Michael’s throat.

“Not gonna lie,” Michael said, accelerating his speed as he fought to make his way back to Ray and Gavin. “I’m a bit disappointed.”

Gavin frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Michael shook his head as he searched for words. “I was expecting an entirely different universe to be more… exhilarating, or something.”

Ray threw a grin back at him over his shoulder. “Our humble abode underwhelming?” he teased, taking a step back to stand next to Michael.

“Well, I wouldn’t go as far to say I’m underwhelmed,” the human compromised, still taking in his surroundings. He couldn’t see any sign of a city, but at the same time, the fog hanging low to the ground obscured his vision a little bit too well.

“Just whelmed?” Gavin offered.

“Just whelm-“ Michael started, hoping the words would make more sense if they came off his own tongue.  He expected incorrectly, concluding that Gavin remained an idiot. “Oh my God, shut up. Don’t ever talk again.”

Gavin, in shockingly quick response, screwed up his eyes and stuck out his tongue, shoving his astronomically and infinitely infuriating face into Michael’s personal bubble. A wave of murderous intent swept over him and Michael was positive by this point that one day, he was going to punch Gavin in his fucking face. He was going to punch him in the face and break that goddamn nose of his, and when it finally heals, it would be large enough for Michael to take his kids out on a picnic to.

But Michael didn’t say any of this out loud. Instead, he just remained very still, and let his eyes speak, filled with (what he hoped was) inexplicable hate and frothing with murder. He was proved wrong when Gavin backed up and giggled.

Michael is reminded why he is a perpetually angry human being.

Ray paid no attention to the exchange between the others as he tossed Michael a grin. “I’ve been to Earth before, not all that overwhelming, either. Too dirty. Too preachy. I can only visit for a couple of days at a time or else I start to, y’know, _care_.”

“You’ve been to _Earth_?!” Gavin demanded, eyes wide and disbelieving. “I thought that was off limits to those other than Hu-kin!”

“You gotta have the right set of skills to get in, man,” Ray teased, eyes twinkling with a mixture of humor and pride. “Right amount of cloaking spells, correct use of Runelore; you know, all that good stuff.”

Michael groaned and put his head in his hands. “Jesus Christ, I have no idea what the _fuck_ you guys are talking about.”

Ray and Gavin exchanged an uncomfortable look. “Well, you see, for a while, humans and… us? Maybe? We, you could say, lived together in peace, but, like, the humans and other Hu-kin kind of… broke off, I guess?” Ray explained unsteadily. “They just decided they didn’t want anything to do with magic and non-Hu-kin so they banned anyone else from entering their land.”

“Hu-kin means they were born under the god Hundar!” Gavin added.

“Yeah, and no one follows that ‘don’t have anything to do with us’ rule, anyways,” Ray concluded with a nod. “Does that make sense?”

“No, but I’ll humor you,” Michael replied, shaking his head, “just explain it to me in pieces, man. I can’t comprehend things in large amounts. I go to public school.”

Scratching the side of his stubbled chin, Ray contemplated his next set of words carefully before starting again. “Well,” he tried, “geez, this is old history class level shit, man,” he sighed and shook his head.  “Basically, a long time ago- like, a long… long… time ago; preceding whatever sort of beginning you humans perceive the world to have started. Basically, there were only the Deities, a group of big dudes with a lot of power and immortality. They all secretly hated each other, I guess, so each of them constructed their own army, in hopes to bring war and take over all realms.

Like, there was Ellod and Ar, twin brothers who, in reality, were absolutely nothing alike. You see, Ellod was more modest and he favored handiwork and menial power, giving his sons and daughters exceptional speed and agility. Ar, on the other hand, was much flashier when it came to tastes, so his kin came to be known as masters of Runelore, with magic blood running in their veins.”

“Oh, so _that’s_ what you meant when you said you were born of Ellod,” Michael recalled, realization dawning him as he looked straight at Gavin, who grinned in response.

“Yep, that’s me!” the elf chirped. “Menial and weak and completely sub-par!”

Michael nodded, slowly starting to understand the information that was being fed to him. “So that means I’m from Hundar, right?” he questioned, a need for comprehension compelling him.

“Born of Hundar, yeah,” Ray corrected. “He created his species’ to be very average in all stats. They don’t have a specific weakness and they were made to be able to work for whatever strength they want. That gave humans especially an advantage over everyone because they had the option of specialization. It only just fed their flame of arrogance, to be fair.”

“Okay,” Michael tried, managing to not take much offence at the ‘arrogance’ remark. “So what does that make you, then? Like, your god and such?”

The cheeky grin Ray gave him caused Michael such great dread and slight irritation as he realized immediately that he wasn’t going to like the answer that he gave him.

“Son of Bün, at your service!” Ray chorused, almost eager to give that answer.

Gavin, who had been trailing along ahead of them, halted abruptly and whirled on his heel to look Ray in the eye, incredulity and something reminiscent of fear clouding his features. “You’re a damn _demigod_?!” he demanded.

In response, Ray held up a peace sign with his hand, giving him only a solemn “yup”. Gavin could only gape at him, the expression on his face complex and unreadable, leaving Michael, once again, not knowing what was going on.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Michael said, holding up both of his hands in defeat while shaking his head, “what the hell does that mean?”

Gavin wet his lips, starting to speak, but stopping once again as he focused on Ray, his eyes untrusting and not wanting to leave him. “It’s what we call the kin of Bün. They’re just _powerful_ , almost immortal beings.” Gavin’s voice was low, and it shocked Michael to hear the elf so serious. “I don’t trust you,” he added to Ray, who shrugged.

“It’s what we’re called because it’s literally what we _are_ ,” Ray stated simply, apparently used to such a reaction. “We weren’t molded like all of the other mortals; we were literally born. The Big Man just gets bored or something and decidedly fucks around with mortals. And I mean that in the literal meaning. He was sex with mortals. Makes love. Penis in vagina, or whatever.”

Michael nodded slowly as Ray spoke, trying to take the information as seriously as possible (although it was rather difficult). “Okay… so does that make you, like, terrifying, or whatever?” he asked.

Ray actually _laughed_ , begging Gavin to frown, either in disbelief or just at the situation, Michael couldn’t tell. “Are you kidding me? My ‘special power’ is that I can look at someone and know whatever I want about them. I can’t fucking fight for shit.”

Gavin narrowed his eyes at that. “Alright, then, what am I thinking right now?” he demanded of Ray, who rolled his eyes and sighed.

“I can see into their past, dumbshit, I’m not telepathic,” the demigod deadpanned, seeming exasperated at Gavin’s words. “Like, I can look into their life and find out anything I want. It’s kind of cool, I guess.”

Understanding dawned Michael as his eyes visibly widened. “So, is that what you were doing in the prison, then?” he questioned, remembering the way that Ray’s eyes glowed red and the knowing grin he bore as he looked at the woman in the cell.

Ray nodded. “Yep. I typically use it to detect lies, like you saw, or pick out interesting people. All kinds of fun things. Typically, there isn’t anything that would be able to stop me, other than wickedly advanced magic or certain sacred artifacts. Which, actually, is why I brought you two along. I couldn’t see anything about you guys, other than your age, name, race, and birthplace. And that, might I add, is definitely strange.”

Michael sighed, leaning back against the tree beside them. They’d been walking for a while now as they’d talked and, to his dismay, there still was no sign of a city. Scanning the area, all he got was grass, sky, and horizon lines. Why someone would build anything in, quite literally, the middle of nowhere was beyond him.

“Well,” Gavin said, breaking Michael’s trance. “I definitely haven’t dabbled in any demigod repellant advanced magic lately. What about you, Michael?”

Scowling at the still so ridiculous was Gavin said his name, Michael responded, “I can guarantee you that I have never used any magic, ever. One time I thought I could be Harry Potter, though.  Still didn’t do any magic.” With that, he nudged Gavin and gestured with his head to the front of them as a dirt road came into view. It was narrow, about the same size as an average sidewalk, and Michael noted the tracks in the dirt that looked almost like… tires?

“Hold on a second,” Michael said, and the two turned to face him in question. “Gavin, back in the prison, didn’t the guard say that you had stolen some sort of artifact?”

Gavin looked confused for a second, before paling immediately. “ _Sausages!_ ” he cried, the term being maybe in some place of a curse, as it was quite an odd word to yell at the top of his lungs. “Geoff’s going to _kill me!_ I wasn’t supposed to lose that!”

Before Michael could question who Geoff was or make fun of his use of the term ‘sausages’, Ray spoke first. “Wait,” the demigod said, halting immediately. “You’ve been in contact with a sacred artifact lately?” Gavin nodded. “Are you _sure_?”

“I’m positive,” the elf responded, the look of worry having yet to disappear from his features. “I nicked it from the Pattillo family a couple of weeks ago, but the Guard just found it on me last night. Oh, God, Geoff is going to be _pissed!_ I was supposed to have that to him by tonight!”

Not speaking, Ray ran his tongue over his lower lip, deep in thought. “That could do it,” he finally said, looking back up at Michael and Gavin. “Depending on how powerful the artifact was. Gav, do you have any idea what it did? Or did your Barrier just tell you to take it?”

Once again, Michael was completely thrown off by what they were talking about. No, he didn’t have any idea as to what a Barrier was, or when Ray started making use of Gavin’s almost shockingly affectionate nickname, but he had a feeling that this was something that he had to get used to for the time being.

Gavin energetically shook his head. “I have no idea! Geoff just said that he wanted it and, I mean, you _know_ I can’t say no, so I just took it, I guess? I dunno, it just glowed and made a lot of weird humming noises.”

Ray seemed to take this information to heart as his fingers drummed incessantly at his side, teeth sinking into his lip. “Not gonna lie,” Ray started, “I kinda want to check this thing out.”

“Yeah, but they already took it from me, Ray, I don’t know where it would be. And I’m sure as hell not going back into the Pattillo’s ground after what happened last time,” Gavin pointed out. Michael still felt completely lost, not knowing what to add to the conversation.

Ray grinned. “I happen to have some sort of idea of where they keep exceptionally powerful stolen objects. There’s a huge storage space not too far from here, where they keep all kinds of fun toys before shipping ‘em back to their rightful owners.”

This didn’t make any sense to Michael. Why would they keep so many powerful objects in one place where they could just be stolen again? Wasn’t that dangerous? It didn’t sound like a carefully thought out idea. Nevertheless, it still sounded interesting.

“Well, okay, then,” Michael finally spoke up, interjecting himself into their conversation. “When do we want to head out there?”

“Hopefully soon, I still need to get that crystal back to Geoff before he rips out my asshole,” Gavin agreed, nodding along with Michael.

“Hold on,” Ray said, holding up a hand to try and slow the two down. “Let’s be rational here. Do we really want to break into a most likely heavily guarded building, _unarmed_ , filled with things that can easily be really, really scary?”

And Michael looked directly at Gavin, who was grinning like the dumbass he was, and that, really, was the deciding factor. The answer seemed so simple, after everything they’d dealt with these past couple of hours and Michael, the human being, could only speak the language of his people.

“Fuck it,” he said simply, shrugging his shoulders.

And at that, Ray grinned widely, throwing his arms around the shoulders of his new acquaintances while simultaneously turning them around on the dirt path towards the direction of their destination.

“YOLO, right?” he sang, turning to look at each of them individually and it took Michael to remember that, while Ray was a near-immortal being from another world, he’d still had the unfortunate opportunity to visit Earth multiple times in his life.

“Why, of all the things you can pick up from my world, did it have to be _that_?” he questioned sourly, even though his smile matched the other two’s. Ray only chuckled in response, unwinding his arms from around the other two.

And, as they made their way down the dirt road, nothing seemed to be wrong. It didn’t matter that Michael was hopelessly lost in space and time and had no idea any way to get home. The fact that he still wasn’t positive that any of this was real wasn’t important. He knew that this was going to be so much different than anything he’d ever experienced before and, for once, he might have been ready for whatever trouble he could get himself into with a single cry from Gavin.

“Onwards, lads!”

 

 


	3. breaking and entering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's a long chapter. from the last chapter's lore, here we get a good moving on with the plot. also, i have never laughed harder writing something than i did with this chapter, so enjoy!

The path was just wide enough to fit the three of them walking side-by-side. They’d been heading north east by foot for probably around an hour and Michael, admittedly, was getting a little tired of walking. He still hadn’t come across anything particularly interesting on the outside, to his dismay, and had recently taken to half-listening to Ray and Gavin drone on about the lore of this world while trailing slightly behind.

“Hey, guys,” he spoke, causing the others to turn and face him in question. “How much longer do we have to this place? I’m only human, remember. Not to mention, not in the best of shape. ‘M getting kind of tired.”

“Uh, I don’t think it’s very far. Though we still have some walking to do,” Ray answered, shielding the sun from his eyes with his hand as he peered out into the distance in search of their destination. Michael grimaced, the light catching the glasses of the demigod and causing him to look away.

Gavin, on the other hand, grinned at Michael. “C’mon, Michael! Get those short little legs working right and keep moving forward! Don’t be a lazy dunce!” he provoked, albeit a little too cheerfully; with his hands clenched into fists and his smile all too teasing.

“Shut the fuck up, Gavin,” Michael deadpanned, “and if you ever call my legs short again, I’ll kick you straight in the ass.”

“Michael, no! My ass is fragile!”

“Bitch, your ass is dead.”

Ray, being the calmest and probably most rational thinker of the group, immediately stuck his hand out between the two to not let them get carried away. “Okay, loverboys, let’s not start fucking in the middle of the road. At least have some class.”

Looking at Michael, Gavin raised both of his eyebrows and gave him a smirk that Michael did not even want to decipher. “Don’t even say it,” he told him, brushing past and focusing on the road ahead, ignoring the giggling elf behind him.

“Did Geoff give you any other instructions?” Ray directed the question at Gavin, quickly changing the subject before it became too awkward. “I mean, I’m assuming that he already knows that you lost the crystal. Just, did he tell you when he wanted it back?”

Gavin rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Ah, yeah, he just said as soon as possible,” the elf answered.  “Which, by my standards, should probably be somewhere within the next two months.”

Ray gaped at him. “Does your Barrier let you get away with that?!”

“Yeah. I mean, he’s obviously annoyed at it but I don’t really care too much,” Gavin shrugged, because as Michael was slowly beginning to learn, Gavin often did not find fault in the things he said, no matter just how wrong they were.

“You are-“ Ray started, but he couldn’t finish, letting Gavin’s complete disregard for authority really sink in. The demigod could only shake his head in disbelief, resigning to not even start to finish his thought. Gavin laughed again, potentially proud of himself for being so incompetent.

Michael groaned. “Okay, new rule, don’t fuckin’ use words I don’t understand unless you explain them first. Goddamn, you guys. We’ve been over this already.”

Sighing, Gavin ran a hand through his tusseled caramel hair. “It’s kind of a long explanation,” he began, stopping slightly in his tracks before starting again. “See, remember the Ar and Ellod elves thing?” Michael nodded. “Well, somewhere along the line in history, those born of Ellod were deemed to be inferior to the Ar, and it sort of developed this hierarchy.

Basically, every being with Ellod blood would eventually meet one of Ar and, through the Ar’s decision, would become barred. It’s kind of like their souls are bonded together and the Ar elf can read in on the Ellod’s thoughts whenever they needed to. Ellod elves, then, are bound to servitude and have to do whatever their Barrier- the one they’re bonded to- says.

Mine happens to be Geoff Ramsey of Ar. He found me when he was only, like, 8 years old and I was basically a fetus I was so young and somehow, formed the bond. I don’t really have any memories before I knew Geoff; he’s always been there. That’s why we have a much more lenient relationship.” Gavin explained carefully, looking at Michael when he was done in hopes that the human understood the information he was being fed.

Luckily, Michael seemed to get it. “Okay. That makes sense. So does that mean Geoff knows what we’re doing, like, right now?” he questioned.

Gavin shook his head. “Not at this exact moment, no, but he knows where we’re going and what we’re going to do. And he thinks it’s ‘fucking stupid’.”

“To be fair, it isn’t the most well-thought out decision I’ve had,” Ray countered pointedly. “Speaking of, I think it’s that place just up ahead.”

At those words, Michael snapped to attention, head whipping to try and see where Ray was gesturing. A building caught his eye and, using his hand to get the sun out of his eyes, his eyes focused more in to see the pearly white stone structure. It was smaller in size, maybe the size of a small house, though it was completely cubic and without windows.

“Okay,” Michael nodded, though stopping in his tracks, causing the other two to come to a halt as well and look at him in question. “Now that we’ve actually reached the place, can we finally figure out how we’re going to get inside? Without, you know, getting killed. I actually value my life, believe it or not.”

Neither Gavin nor Ray spoke for a few fleeting seconds. “Well, we could bloody-uh, bloody be sneaky about it, yeah?” Gavin offered, eyes lighting up like what he was saying made complete sense and he wasn’t the biggest pile of stupid shit in the entire realm. “We could be all stealthy and such.”

“Great. You are the least intelligent life form I’ve ever met,” Michael deadpanned as Gavin guffawed, turning to look to Ray for more suggestions. “Ray, tell me you’ve got something here, for the sake of my precious life.”

Ray, to Michael’s sincere dismay, only shrugged in response. “I dunno, man. I gotta say that I’ve gotten to many-a places in my life by ‘just winging it’, ya know? Praying to the Gods and hoping that you live. Well- not many things can kill me, anyways, but just in case.” Michael wanted to punch the demigod in the face at this point, since, as he’s learned, the kid’s only really good for snarky comments and virtually nothing actually helpful.

Michael took Ray’s comment in grace and nodded to himself. “I’m going to fucking die today,” he decided with a tone of finality, “I’m going to die, and it’s going to be all of your faults. You guys are leading me to my death.”

“Oh, come on, Michael, let’s not be too negative!” Gavin chirped, making Michael continually more frustrated with his growing sense of faux positivity. There was no need to pretend that he was going to survive this. They had no plan, no chance of success, and yet here they were, continuing forward.

Ray groaned. “Look, I don’t really see any guards around here. We can check on the far left side, and I’ll see what my slim knowledge of magick can get done. Maybe I can make a fuckin’ door or something.”

The side of the pearl building Ray was gesturing to seemed to be an actually reasonable place to start their plan; there was a large, winding tree with branches that spanned about ten feet in radius shading over the area, so it might almost manage to mask what they were doing.

Okay.

That was good enough for Michael.

He felt a tap on his shoulder that snapped him out of his trance, immediately fixing his eyes on Ray and Gavin as they slunk into the shadows of the surrounding trees to get to the building. Michael frowned, but decided to follow them, crouching low and stepping in the imprints that their feet left behind. Ray and Gavin disappeared behind the side of the structure as Michael, gripping the pearl colored building’s edge, checked over his shoulder to make sure they weren’t being followed.

Which they weren’t.

Somehow.

Michael sidestepped so that he was directly behind Ray, who had both hands pressed up against the wall of the building, sliding them down slowly as his eyes scanned the surface. Michael didn’t dare say anything. He knew that Ray probably had more of an idea of what he was doing than he did, and that was enough for Michael, just this once, to keep his mouth shut.

“What are you doing?” and really, Michael should have known better than to assume that the British voiced elf would be smart enough to know that he should let Ray concentrate on not letting them get killed. Alas, though, it appeared as if the moron didn’t think that far ahead.

“Shut up, Gavin,” the demigod hissed, and then, to Michael’s sincere shock, dug his teeth so far into his thumb that a drop of blood bubbled from the wound and stained the pearly enamel. The human still kept his mouth shut- metaphorically, of course, because it was hanging wide open as Ray smeared the blood from his finger vertically down the external of the building, leaving behind a long, crimson streak..

Thanking the gods, Michael had never been so grateful to see a look of confusion on Gavin’s face that matched the same one he was wearing. Finally, someone was on the same page as him; the contents. Not even page 1.

Michael frowned, looking from the trail of blood, to the way both of Ray’s hands were pressed once again to the exterior about a shoulder width apart, and sighed. “Okay, Ray,” he started, pressing a hand to Ray’s shoulder. “What the hell are we doing?”

“Don’t touch me,” Ray stated coolly, though not unkindly, and Michael immediately retracted his hand, “I’m making an entrance way using the slim amount of knowledge of magicks I have. It’s our best shot.”

Michael’s displeased expression did not disappear. “Okay, and about how long will that take?” he questioned, wishing with all of his might that the answer would be along the lines of ‘oh, you know, just a couple seconds’, because he didn’t know if they could afford to wait around for Ray to get them in any longer.

“Probably about 5 to 10 minutes.” Or that.

“Right. Is this… transformation going to arouse any suspicions?” Gavin continued for Michael, most likely thinking the same things as him. Which was ‘is he going to get us killed. am I going to die because of this stranger’s actions’. “I mean, is it going to be loud? Or, like, really bright flashing lights?”

“I have no idea.” Okay, well, they were fucked.

“If you guys were going to try and break in, you’d have to do better than that.” Oh, they were so boned. So, totally, completely boned. Michael’s ass was already starting to hurt from the amount of bone that he was taking- which was, judging by just how much they were boned, probably about 8-10 inches of thick, pure, unadulterated bone-age.

Because Michael didn’t have a clue whose voice just spoke.

And apparently, though fortunately or unfortunately, Michael was not sure, his companions had the exact same thoughts that he did as he felt Gavin’s skeleton try to climb its way out of his flesh by the way his skin crawled against him, and how Ray leaned his head forward into the building, apparently not caring enough to notice that he’d just smeared blood all over his forehead.

Michael was the only one brave enough to look this newfound stranger in the eyes.

It was actually fairly surprising how tired they looked.

That was the best way he could describe the stranger. Tired, with his wirey, greying, mouse colored hair that stuck up in multiple directions, to the permanently exasperated brown eyes that peered down at him. Michael’s eyes trailed further as he took in the thin frown above a slightly stubbled chin, to the broad shoulders but leaner frame accentuated by a muscle shirt, following down to the iron gloves and baggy pants that were tucked into a pair of lace up boots.

The stranger had a young face, but from the wrinkles that came with stress and pokes of gray hairs, Michael would assume that he just looked younger than he actually was. That, or he was just constantly stressed out, because while the stranger didn’t look outraged, he just kind of seemed to perpetually be hovering between irritated and nonplussed.

“I’m so sorry, sir, we don’t mean to cause trouble-” Michael immediately looked to Gavin as he spoke, wondering how in the fuck he can remain so reasonable when it was obvious that this calm and fairly attractive (though Michael wasn’t attracted to him, he just could admit when someone was aesthetically pleasing and he prided himself in that ability) stranger was going to kill them on the spot.

But something changed from the repressed touch of desperation on the elf’s face, as his eyebrow twitched and eyes squinted, taking a good, long look at the newcomer who immediately did the same. But the stranger appeared differently than the elf as he stared down Gavin, expression changing from “I don’t want to be at my job” to “oh God how is this even possibly happening right now”.

And that, honestly, just confused Michael more.

“Gavin…?” the stranger tried, forcing his name off of his tongue and seriously now, what the fuck. What the  _fuck_.

“J-role!!” Gavin fucking  _cheered_ , and Michael had not a goddamn clue what that sudden exclamation meant, but apparently it was something out of familiarity as the elf actually pushed the human out of the way to get to this person that Gavin apparently fucking already knew.

This was insane, Michael was positive of that much as he looked to Ray, whose mouth was hung open and hand raised slightly in the air out of complete disbelief for the sequence of events that were playing out before his eyes. Okay, so Michael was definitely not the only one completely thrown out of the loop. He hoped this feeling didn’t leave anytime soon, because it was oddly satisfying to watch people other than him look utterly confused.

“Oh, God, Gavin what are you  _doing_?” the person groaned, sliding both of his hands up his face and into his disheveled hair. And Gavin held no regard to the stranger’s distaste at the situation as he gleefully bounced on the balls of his feet.

Alright, so far what Michael had gathered was that just about everyone held the same amount of sheer irritation towards Gavin Free that transcended any kind of limit that any one person could set in stone.

“Joel, you have no bloody idea how glad I am to see you, let me tell you that much!” Gavin chirped, throwing his arm around the neck of the stranger Michael now identified as ‘Joel’, who did not appear to be as ecstatic as the elf. In fact, he seemed pretty much the opposite. “Boys,” Gavin spoke again, now looking at both Michael and Ray, “this is my good friend Joel Heyman. Joel, these are  _my boys_.”

Right, well, Michael wasn’t so sure how he felt about being referred to as Gavin’s “boy”, but at least the two seemed to be friendly with each other. Or at least one sidedly, because Joel didn’t seem to be enjoying the close proximity at all, and the unfolding situation even less.

Joel ducked under Gavin’s arm. “Gavin, man, what is going  _on_? Who are these people?!” he demanded, patience dwindling.

"Oh, trust us," Ray finally spoke, looking just as tired and irritated as Joel did, "we are just as confused as you are." And that was more or less true, though the confusion was probably for two vastly different reasons.

Gavin responded by pointing a finger right at Michael. “That,” he started, not losing any of the confidence he had in his voice as Michael scowled at the finger almost brushing up against his nose. “is Michael Jones. He’s a human, has no idea what’s going on at all or how he got here.” Well, make him sound fucking stupid, why don’t you.

"And  _that_ ,” Gavin began again, now changing directions so that he was facing Ray, who’s eyes flickered between the elf’s pointer finger and dumb fucking expression, not impressed, “is Ray. Who’s a demigod and helped us break out of prison!” Gavin was speaking way too excitedly for Joel to be able to handle, Michael thinks as the older’s jaw sat on hinge. “And we are trying to break into this capacity to steal the Sacred Artifact that’s in here!”

Gavin sounded so sure of himself and Joel looked like he was having a lot of trouble processing all of this information at once.

Once he did, though, he looked vaguely suicidal. “Wait, wait, wait,” Joel begins, pinching the bridge of his nose and hanging his head; looking so absolutely  _finished_ that Michael felt almost sorry for him, “you’re telling me that you bring not  _only_ a goddamn demigod, but a  _human_ as well to one of the most fortified structures in the realm, to steal one of the most  _powerful_ and  _valuable_ items in the entire  _universe…_ and your grand entrance is only a simple  _blood ritual?”_

Ray actually seemed to take offense at that. “Hey, we were working with what we had,” he retaliated, crossing his arms and frowning. Joel didn’t look at him, only stuck his hand out to get Ray to stop talking and shook his head.

"No, I-" Joel cut himself off and gave a mildly disgusted Ray an unimpressed look, vaguely gesturing towards him with his index finger. "Shut up. Shh. I don’t trust you, don’t talk."

"Now just you-"

"You. Human or whatever," Joel didn't let Ray finish and it was obvious that the demigod did not like getting cut off at all. Michael raised an eyebrow, "what the hell are you doing here? I thought humans were completely cut off from Earth? I don't- I mean, you shouldn't be here in the first place."

Yeah, Michael wishes he had an answer. "Man, I don't know what to tell you. I've been in this weird realm for the past, like, five hours and I still have no idea what's going."

Joel shook his head, "Gavin, what the hell is even your  _aim_?" he questioned the elf, who didn't even flinch at the harsher tone the stranger used. "You're trying to steal a sacred artifact with this... this rag tag team of clueless-"

"Okay, well,  _I'm_ at least not clueless-" Ray interjected vehemently, seeming to not like being ignored one bit, though the look Joel gave him said otherwise.

"Sorry, but I don't trust a bastard's words," Joel stated nonchalantly, looking away from Ray, who scowled. "I'm actually smart enough to know at least  _that_ much."

"Oh, I see, so it's a discrimination thing."

But Joel wasn't listening to him anymore, now facing Gavin expectantly, who scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Ah, well, you see," he started, trailing off slightly, "Geoff kind of told me to get this. I nicked it from Jack Pattillo a couple of weeks ago for him, and then I was caught and thrown in prison, and now we're trying to steal it back."

The stranger's face darkened. "Geoff told you to do this?" he questioned, tone dropping with the look in his eyes.

Gavin looked as though he didn't know how to answer. "Uh... yeah?" he tried, voice sounding like he hoped that was the correct answer to the question.

Joel let out a long, hopeless sigh; running a hand once more through his hair and gesturing for the others to follow him as he turned. "Jesus, I can't believe this is happening right now. I'll help you guys inside, but you only have so long to work until someone finds you out. So get out quickly." He didn't sound very happy about helping them, Michael noted, but Michael would accept any sort of help that would avoid him being killed.

Gavin looked ecstatic. "Sweet! Thanks, J-role!" he cheered, looking very close to celebrating as he ran to keep up with Joel. Michael and Ray trailed behind, much less enthusiastically.

"Yeah, whatever, you're lucky Geoff scares me," Joel said, slowing as they reached the front of the building, stopping in front of the large iron doors.

"Geoff is a man who spends over an hour every day grooming his mustache and has been known for, on multiple occasions, wearing his pants on backwards," Gavin countered, making Michael even more curious about this Geoff character. Over an hour a day spent on his mustache? He must have a pretty glorious mustache.

"Yeah, and apparently he took down an entire army of a hundred thousand men single-handedly." Okay, well, that was a lot scarier than a sweet mustache.

"That's just a myth!"

"All myths come from somewhere," Joel muttered, now turning to face the three of them. "Okay,  _kids_ , you probably only have around seven minutes to get your shit done in there, so do whatever you need to quickly. I'm gonna open the door-"

"Joel, what's going on?" Oh, great, more complete strangers popping up at the most inconvenient times. What a time to be alive.

Michael whirled around to find a man with curly hair and glasses, taller, but more burlier than Joel round the corner and stop in his tracks to take in the four of them and have the expression on his face change from confusion, to even more confusion to-

On the ground as Joel slams his fist directly into it, knocking the man unconscious immediately.

Oh. Fuck.

"He is going to kill me for that," Joel mused disappointedly, shaking his head before rummaging through his pockets and pulling out a key. The three watched in awe as Joel dropped to his knee and stuck the key between the gap of the two doors and dragged it up the length of the entrance, turning at the top and virtually unlocking the building. "There's no time to waste," he reminded them, pulling open the doors for the trio to enter, "work as quickly as possible."

Gavin grinned, running right into the building, Ray and Michael still trudging behind, "Got it! Thanks for everything, Joel!" he cried, immediately rushing to the tables piled high with magical objects in search of their crystal.

"If anyone asks how you got in, don't you dare mention my name!" Joel yelled back in response, "and I've got my eyes on you, demigod, so don't try anything!"

" _Jesus_ , I can't even do anything, dude!" Ray did not sound happy at all at being so accused. 

"Yeah, it's fine, Joel," Michael said, giving Ray a teasing grin, "he's completely harmless. He only has the ability to know everything about anyone, there's no possible way he can use that against us or anything."

"Fuck, man, don't put it like that! I'm trying to get people to  _trust_ me."

Michael just shrugged in response, resolving to pay more attention to the room he just entered. For such a bright exterior, the inside was so much darker, dimly lit only floating orbs of light lining the spots where the walls met the ceiling. Some lights sparked from the tables that were lined with, well, all Michael could really describe it was  _magic_.

He approached one of the tables in awe, taking note of every interesting object he could find. Which, might he add, was a vast majority. There was a golden locket that floated above the table's surface, where the engraved thorns moved along its exterior. Farther down, he noticed a crystalline bowl filled with a milky substance, a blue, humming light moving beneath the liquid. 

But what really caught Michael's eye was the fuckin' sweet sword standing upright on the table. And really, Michael wishes he had a better way to describe the sword other than 'fuckin' sweet', but the sword just looked so goddamn  _cool_ that he didn't know how else to describe it.

Michael cautiously grabbed the hilt, staring up the length of the sword in awe. The blade looked as if it was forged out of jade- though he doubted that was the case, but the color was just so  _magnificently_ a pale chartreuse that reflected the light if he tilted it slightly to the left. His eyes wandered down the pure silver hilt, noticing small details like the roaring bear's head as the sword's rain guard, and along the grip he could barely make out the letters, "bendithio yn y rhyfelwr", or whatever that meant.

"This is so fucking cool," Ray was actually the one to say what Michael was thinking instead of him, but when he looked over to grin at the demigod, he noticed that Ray'd actually found his own cool nick nack; a pair of gloves the color of midnight, that looked plain until he noticed a glimmering crimson rose on each of the gloves' palms.

Ray noticed Michael was staring at him, gave the human a cheeky grin, and turned his hands so that the palms were face up.

And two fireballs hovered then, just above the roses.

Yeah, that was super fucking cool.

"Oh, damn, there it is!" came Gavin's cry and that had the two other companions running towards him, swerving through the rows of tables and ducking under a golden archway that's owl eyes followed them as they moved, nearly running smack into a grandfather clock that hummed instead of tocked, and screeching to a halt when they came face to face with the crystal.

That was bigger than a fucking bowling ball.

"You've got to be kidding me," Ray deadpanned, then speaking exactly what Michael was thinking at that point, "there's no way we're going to be able to carry that thing, is there."

Gavin rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Uh, well, it's actually  _really_  heavy, the only reason I was able to carry it at all was because Geoff gave me runes of shrinking," was the only response he gave and the human and demigod groaned loudly at his words.

"You couldn't have told us this  _before_  we got here?!" Michael demanded, his voice going shrill with incredulity at the situation because really, what the  _fuck?_

"I didn't think it would make a difference! What would we have done  _then?!_ "

"We could have at least  _planned_  for it!"

"Jesus Christ, let me see the damn crystal!" Ray interrupted the argument, pushing past the human and the elf and placing both of his palms on the cleanly cut opaline object. "I'll see if I can put a shrinking spell on it or make it lighter or  _something_. Gods, I can't believe you two make me do everything around here."

Michael bristled at that comment, scowling at the demigod's tone. "I think you somehow keep forgetting that I  _just fucking **got** **here**  _and I'm not even from this realm in the first place!" he spat, getting even more frustrated when Ray just rolled his eyes.

"Fine, but Mr. Free over here has absolutely no excuse," he chided, tilting his head to gesture towards the elf, who only shrugged in response, as if saying 'oh, well'.

"I'm just useless in general," Gavin pointed out, as if that excuse was a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why he was no help in any situation that they've found themselves in yet.

"Yeah, I've fucking noticed!"

The sound of boots thundering against the stone ground cut them off, as they looked up to find Joel barreling towards them at high speed. He reached them with a screeching halt, resting his hands on his knees and reeling over to catch his breath.

"What the hell are you guys  _doing?_ " he demanded with a gasp, standing up straight to let them notice the pure desperation in his eyes. "You need to  _move_ , the other guards have been alerted already!" and that caused the three to stand up straighter and get ready to start panicking.

Michael swore, running his hands through his curly hair, "Where are we supposed to go?!" he sputtered, "They're coming in through the front doors!"

_"Who's in there?!"_ came a gruff demand, as if on cue, and the four of them groaned in unison.

"There's a ladder in the corner, it'll take you to a small ledge and a secret exit way. You'll have to jump out, but it's not that far of a drop," Joel explained, pointing to the edge of the room, not too far away. Michael decided then that,  _yes_ , now was the time to start moving as he pushed at Gavin's shoulder and nodded towards the corner. The elf took the hint, and soon, they were running at full speed away from the other two.

" _Ray_ , you've got to  _move!_ " Michael heard Joel command, only half listening to the conversation behind him.

"I'm trying to shrink this! I can't move and concentrate at the same time!"

"Oh, for the love of-"

"What the  _ **fuck**_?!" at the demigod's shrill voice, Michael turned around to see that Joel had thrown the boy over his shoulder and was no dashing towards them. In any other situation, it would have been a pretty funny sight to see, but right now, Michael decided only to concentrate on climbing up the ladder.

He was about halfway up when he realized that a certain elf was not right behind him.

"Gavin!" Michael called out, the sword swinging at his him as his body jerked to try and find his missing companion, "where the hell are you?! We need to go!" 

The elf came running towards him, a slick, Hawthorne bow now in his hands. "My bow!" Gavin cried, "I found my bow! I thought I'd lost it!" 

Michael rolled his eyes, increasing his speed as he pulled himself up onto the ledge. "Jesus, just fucking hurry up! We can't waste any more time!" he called down to Gavin, who was much quicker than him as he swiftly maneuvered up the rope ladder to stand on the ledge with the human.

"Here's the exit, I think," Gavin mused, dropping to his knees to find a gold handle attached to the wall. It was on Michael's second take that he noticed that it wasn't a wall, but a door that was the exact same build and shape as the wall next to it. Pretty sneaky. Gavin pulled the handle up, and revealed a dim light that only came with the evening poured into the building as the door revealed. "See you at the bottom," he winked, and then jumped out.

Michael shook his head, deciding to get over his fear of heights right  _now_ and closed his eyes, jumping right after him.

The ground met his feet more quickly than he'd expected, but there wasn't much pain in them as his hands met the lush grass below to stop himself from completely falling over. Okay, so the drop wasn't as bad as he'd been expecting it to be.

"Catch!" Michael heard the cry come from above him and looked up just in time to see a small, angry looking demigod soaring through the air kicking and screaming, before landing right smack into Gavin and knocking him to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

A groan came from the pile, "You okay, Ray?" Gavin asked, sitting up and pushing the demigod off of him, rubbing his head, no doubt in pain from the harsh impact of Ray's forehead and the ground.

"Yeah," Ray said casually, "yeah, I'm fine. I mean, Joel used to wet the bed when he was a kid, but you know, I'm totally good."

Joel was a bed wetter? Michael looked up at him with raised eyebrows. Huh. He guesses he could see it. Though he doesn't really look the type at first glance, but attractiveness aside, he seems like the type to have nervous, pee involved habits.

"Gavin, I hate your friends," Joel deadpanned, "and I am never helping you again."

The man disappeared behind the doorway, that closed with a resounding slam. What a glorious way to exit. Michael really couldn't be so surprised that they would make such a negative first impression on new people, it just seemed like the type of thing they would do.

"Okay," Ray said with a tone of finality, standing up and dusting himself off. Michael took note of the black gloves still on his hands and was amused to think that the demigod apparently kept his new toy, too. "Where to, next?" he tossed the now completely shrunk crystal at Gavin, who fumbled with it before pocketing it.

"Well," Gavin started, looking at the pair of them, "how do you guys feel about going on another stealth mission? I've just talked to Geoff, and apparently the Shawcross family has a pretty sweet goblet that he's interested in."

At this point in time, the only thing Michael could really do was shrug his shoulders. "It's a good thing we're fucking experts at breaking and entering, let me tell you," he said sarcastically, not even beginning to be able to imagine what they were getting themselves into as he followed Ray and Gavin back into the depths of the forest, and on to their next adventure.


End file.
